


The Price

by Joribel



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Genre: Amnesia, Canon Divergence with merge of Filmation and DreamWorks, Changed some names of places and things, Dark Magic, Emotional Manipulation, F/F, F/M, Flashbacks and Flash Way Way backs, Friends and Family of Mara, Implied Smut, Magical Heirloom, SPOP Adults, Scorpia takes magic classes, Scorpia was not a baby, Scorpia-centric (She-Ra), Slow Burn, Songfic (some chapters)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:08:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25522624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joribel/pseuds/Joribel
Summary: After surviving Horde Prime and rebuilding her Kingdom, Princess Scorpia faces the advent of her coronation as queen and is left wanting for closure surrounding her lost family. Memories seem faded and warped, fragmented like the pages of an old, neglected book... *Season 5 spoilers!!!*
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	1. The Last Night

Chapter One: 24 Hours  
“Show me again, Papa!” cheered an 11 year-old Princess Scorpia, grinning widely, two braids framing her face.  
“I’ll show you one more time, but then it’s off to bed. You know your mothers.” The wizened face of old King Blacktail smiled mischievously. He raised his two large pincers and formed three small orbs of light and released them toward a light fixture hanging in the middle of a stone archway.  
The gardens were Scorpia’s favorite place to spend evenings with her grandfather, who told exciting stories of past travels and battles while making displays of light. At the end of the evening, he’d scoop up Scorpia’s small, sleepy frame and carry her upstairs to bed. However, on this night, something changed as she softly pecked a kiss on her grandfather’s forehead instead of wrapping into the embrace he had crouched down for.  
“You know I love you, Papa, but I’m turning 12 soon and I think…” she frowned, “...I think it’s time you don’t carry me anymore.”  
If this one statement had shattered his heart, King Blacktail made his best effort to hide it. He smiled tenderly, lowering the arms he had opened to catch Scorpia. His little girl would soon no longer be a child.  
It was intimate knowledge that the Queen regent and her consort had tried for many years to have a child. All manner of magic and science was accessed, until the day came that Scorpia was born and joy filled the Scorpioni Kingdom. Born to magic and power, Scorpia was her grandfather’s pride and joy.  
The Scorpioni were a warrior clan that had existed since the time of the First Ones. Their trade of steel and weapons mined from the caves of the Spine were sought after from all over Etheria. Scorpia would one day rule over all of it.  
A tender moment passed, King Blacktail joined his daughter in the War Room.  
“Report,” said Blacktail, his voice rich with timbre. A younger Scorpioni soldier with an uneasy expression stood across a table, face beaded with sweat.  
“There appears to be an unknown spaceship approaching our orbit. They don’t seem to be in any distress but their flight pattern is erratic and deliberate.”  
The queen mirrored her father’s stern disposition with a sliver of the soldier’s fear. “Are they armed?” she asked, gaze fixed on the soldier.  
“The ships appear to have an archaic weapons system, but the shields appear to be cloaking from further analysis. There are also signals we are picking up that indicate they may be studying our planet.”  
“We have to be ready for anything,” said the queen, “and I will activate the distress beacon to alert the other kingdoms.”  
“They will ignore the signal,” said Blacktail, with a dour expression.  
“Father, please don’t start-“  
“You know they disagree with our ways! They’ve stopped looking to the sky since divine Mara placed us in this dark dimension. They refuse to believe there are worlds beyond our own!”  
“This is as much about their safety as it is about ours!”  
“And should we consider their welfare the same way they did ours when Salineas and Brightmoon banished their criminal filth to the Crimson Desert to leave it to us to clean up?”  
“I’m lighting the Beacon. Memnoch, please gather a detail of your strongest for a welcome party. What’s the ETA?”  
“Twenty-four hours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can’t quite come to a decision as to what her mom’s names are. I’ve seen them called Antares and Shaula, like the celestial bodies in the constellation Scorpius, but I’d feel like I was robbing the one fanfic writer who already used that. Magic is heavily at work in this fic so there will be many flash backs in between chapters taking place after Season 5. Thanks for reading!


	2. The Whisper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taking a moment to rest from endless duties, Princess Scorpia reflects on the past year and then something unexpected happens...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Google Translate!  
> Also, the song is “Locked Out of Heaven” by Bruno Mars. I don’t own rights to the song, no profit is being made by adding it to this fanfic

It was fast, the way the world changed after its war with Prime. She-Ra spread her light, and the Horde was gone. In quick succession the militant factions that had formed in self-defense in the New Spine and the Crimson Desert (formery the Waste, trying to have less negative names here) pledged their loyalty to Scorpia. Not yet a queen, but more than a princess, especially to her friends, and Perfuma.  
_Oh yeah yeah  
Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah  
Oh yeah yeah  
Oh yeah yeah yeah yeah  
Never had much faith in love or miracles… _   
Scorpia had stayed with Perfuma the day after the battle, and their fast friendship blossomed quickly into full, fervent romance. In between weeks of negotiations, tense arguments around the old Scorpioni War Room table, and rigorous reconstruction planning under the hot Spine sun, days away were filled, with HER.  
The pair had become Princess Frosta’s unofficial aunties, and the broken walls of Scorpia’s “work-in-progress” home were, on occasion, filled with laughter and the smell of baking. On some days, Scorpia would make the trip to Plumeria for a break, but her small family understood she was overwhelmingly busy with reconstruction of the Spine. And on rare nights, she’d be all alone with Perfuma, and spend lustful moments physically intertwined with her new love, punctuated with pillow talk filled with dreams and desires.  
_‘Cause your sex brings me to paradise  
Yeah your sex brings me to paradise  
And it shows, yeah, yeah, yeah  
'Cause you make me feel like, I've been locked out of Heaven  
For too long, for too long  
_ After a particularly torrid session, Perfuma’s head resting on Scorpia’s chest, both wet with sweat, they laughed, punctuating the laughs with loud sighs. Scorpia gently stroked Perfuma’s back with her pincers, eyes gleaming with mirth, smiling at the mass of curly blonde hair on her chest.  
If Scorpia were to be completely honest with herself, she could never had seen this coming. In fact, it felt like the last year had hit her like a lightning bolt. She had left the only home she had ever known, and after years of violence, killing, and destruction, without fail or complaint, she decided she was done. She was no longer loyal to the Horde.  
It had started with Entrapta being sent to Beast Island. She loved Catra, and her soft, clumsy heart confused her. She later realized it was more of a kinship than a romantic interest. She had wanted so badly to protect Catra, she ignored that the both of them were in over their heads. There was no way she could convince Catra to abandon her glorious crusade to exact revenge on Adora for abandoning her.  
Scorpia had told Lonnie she was leaving. She could not simply abandon the kids she considered family. They had even had the choice to leave with her. Somehow, as dangerous as her supposed betrayal was, there was an unspoken pact between them that made her trust that neither Lonnie, Kyle, or Rogelio would ever snitch on her.  
Even after all that had happened since then, she didn’t feel like a Princess. In fact, it was hard to feel much at all. When she would have time to process her feelings about the Horde, being chipped, her family, and rebuilding, she preferred to spend it with her face in Perfuma’s neck. It was so easy, so perfect, to spend the hours away with her girlfriend, in between the hard work of not only rebuilding a nation, but their trust in her, when she represented the Horde for so many years.  
•••  
“Okay, just a little more to the side...okay, that’s great.” Scorpia encouraged the workers setting up the new Fright Museum with different artifacts, including old Horde Soldier armour, Horde Banners, propaganda fliers, force captain badges, hardware from Hordak’s sanctum, Shadow Weaver’s broken mask, taser sticks, cadet uniforms, and Adora and Catra’s old Horde uniforms. In the center of the museum was the She-Ra Atrium, with images and replicas of Swift Wind, She-Ra’s regalía and the Sword of Protection. Scorpia had met with a council of former Horde soldiers who willfully defected, and civilians who volunteered to help in the reconstruction. The agreement was that the former Fright Zone would be renamed to its prior name, The Spine, and the Fright Museum would be built behind the old Horror Hall, as a reminder to Etheria of the evils of the Horde and Etherians alike. The old Horror Hall was considered for the actual location of the museum but the reconstruction council agreed that this was still formerly Scorpia’s family home and should be restored and maintained as a historical landmark. Scorpia had appreciated the sentiment, although she didn’t know how to feel about her family.  
The day Scorpia left the Horde, she was filled with a tidal wave of feelings-guilt, disappointment, fear, and resentment. Emily, the spherical robot that now resided in Dryl, had helped her realize that what she had been told by Hordak, Shadow Weaver, and Octavia were lies. Shadow Weaver had only wanted the Black Garnet for herself. Hordak needed Scorpia to be docile. Octavia could care less. She grew up around people who did not care about her. Her moment of epiphany was triggered by a robot.  
Had her family given her up? Had she been ripped from her mother’s cold, dead pincers? Scorpia was beginning to think something was wrong with her mind. She couldn’t have been younger than 11, so why couldn’t she remember? She wanted to talk to Perfuma about it, but their time was so limited, with all the work that all the Princesses were doing to rebuild Etheria after the war, that all she wanted to do was relax, which usually meant blowing off steam, which ended in less talking and more physical activity. Another pivotal change, lightning fast, no time for questions.  
_Oh oh oh oh, yeah, yeah, yeah  
Can't I just stay here?  
Spend the rest of my days here?  
_ •••  
Sometimes, Scorpia would look up at the starlit sky at night from her small bedroom window. She hadn’t moved from her little room since the war, there was too much to do for her people, so a new palace was small priority. At least this bedroom was the one thing that hadn’t changed in the past year. She had paid her dues, given her apologies, worked to organize rebuilding of her city’s infrastructure, given every bit of strength she had and never let a minute go where she didn’t give everything she had to her people. Slowly, but surely, she was earning their trust and even their respect. In moments when she remembered this, she’d smile and remember Perfuma’s words “you can do this.” Then she’d sigh, wishing there was more time. Time to laugh, to cry, to say what burdened her mind, to feel her feelings, to find the answers her heart ached for. Only time would tell when her sentence was served. Only time would reveal when she could rest, when the violence that so annoyingly did not leave itself in the past and continued to push itself into her flesh would dismount from her soul and let her breathe.  
Tonight the three moons of Etheria would triangulate in direct opposition of one another and it was a sight to behold. Stealing fifteen minutes before a four hour sleep, Scorpia climbed up to the roof of her former home to watch the celestial event. Suddenly, the sky seemed to light up in a green haze, and Scorpia could hear whispers, from below. 

_____ _

_____ _

Σκορπιός βασίλισσα της νύχτας  
φύλακας των αρχαίων μυστικών  
πάρτε το γενέθλιό σας

Scorpia wearily stood up, eyes wide. What was happening? She climbed down and looked into her family’s old throne room, only to be greeted by an empty room. Frowning, she turned away only to be beckoned from the back of this pitch-black room by the same whispering voices from before:

Σκούρο κορίτσι  
προσέξτε την κλήση μας  
πάρτε την πραγματική σας μορφή

How did they know her people’s ancient language? With trepidation, Scorpia slowly made her way, ready to strike mercilessly with pincers, fangs, and stinger anyone, or anything playing a game to attack her.  
“Uh, letting you know, this isn’t funny...come out, and I won’t have to hurt you.”  
As she entered, torches extinguished for decades lit, exposing an empty room and a moving throne to expose a secret staircase. Looking around for who might be moving furniture, she grabbed a torch from the wall and approached the stairs. For a moment, she hesitated. Should she call for help? Joining the rebellion against the Horde had truly taught her the importance of asking for help. Before the Princesses, she’d mostly had to solve her problems alone. Something about this voice, however, felt like it was reaching for her alone, and only able to do it by the moons. There would be no time for anyone else. Besides, calling one princess would result in the involvement of an entire army. Calling Adora would involve Catra, who would then reach out to Glimmer, who would tell Bow, who would wake Perfuma and the thought of bothering them all when this all seemed so temporary was anxiety-provoking.  
Somehow, she knew she had to do this alone. Heart pounding, she approached the opening, a purple light glowing from within.  
“Well Scorpia girl, no time for doubts and insecurities. You wished for answers and now, looks like you’ve got them. You’ve got this.”  
As she bravely placed a foot on the first step, she recited it again, “I can do this.”


	3. Soldiers and Sorcerers

“There are two kinds of cadets. The kind that strive, and the kind that straggle.” Drill Sergeant Grizzlor fixed a stern look at the two teenage girls sitting in his office.   
“Drill Sergeant, sir, to be fair, Huntara was only helping me up after I tripped on my tail.”  
“I expect you to keep that thing under control.”  
“Yes, drill sergeant.” Two girls rose out of the chairs in front of Grizzlor’s desk. The girl named Huntara was a tall, violet-skinned alien with long white hair in a ponytail and the other, whose name was Scorpia, was a still tall, but slightly smaller Scorpion with shoulder-length loose white hair in curls. They both scurried out of Grizzlor’s office after his very timbrous “dismissed!”  
With enough distance between them and the ornery Grizzlor, the two girls collapsed in laughter, needing to release tension. They were not more than 13, and awkward, and in need of motherly nurturing.   
“That thing really has a mind of its own.” Scorpia grimaced at her tail. Lately it was wilder than usual, especially at track practice.   
Huntara gave Scorpia a playful poke in the ribs. “Hey, don’t listen to that beast. He’s so scared of Hordak that he’ll blame Kyle if a mission goes wrong.”  
“Yeah Blade, but you don’t have to deal with two moms giving you a royal lecture when you get home.” Scorpia gave Huntara her nickname because of her toughness.   
“Yeah Ruby, guess I don’t. Don’t got parents.” Huntara gave Scorpia her nickname because of the color of her exoskeleton.   
“I’ll give you one of my moms.”  
“Yeah right, race you to the high street!”  
“You’re on!”  
The two girls laughed and burst into a run, almost bumping into civilians along the way. The High Street in the Fright Zone was a road with stores that panned the length of the city. King Blacktail had convinced his daughter Arachne to join the Horde Alliance after the Kingdom of Brightmoon declared war on the Scorpion Kingdom over ownership of the Whispering Woods. His ultimate goal was to see Scorpia become a feared warrior and crush the new rebellion. Scorpia only wanted to sing and paint on her free time. True, she was a trained gymnast and knew her way around a battlefield, but as she got older, fighting lost its magic.   
After a short race to the High Street (Huntara easily won) and having ice cream (Scorpia of course paid) the girls parted ways.   
“See you tomorrow at sparring practice to get my behind kicked,” said Scorpia, with an eye roll.   
“See you later, Ruby.” Huntara grinned devilishly before running to the Horde Barracks on the lower level of the city.   
Scorpia took the longest way she could home, dreading her arrival. Surely she would be chastised for taking too long from track practice to get to the palace, and then there would be a talk from grandpa Blacktail about how at her age he was forced to carry full water barrels for training and it mattered little that he was a prince. Next, her mother Elena would remind Scorpia that she is a princess and that means not walking around in her Horde training clothes, usually with an exasperated sigh and running her small, stone-gray pincers through bobbed white hair. Finally, her mother Arachne would remind Scorpia that she would one day be Queen Regent and that meant that she would need to have the strength of a warrior, pointing large, deep-red pincers at the many family portraits that hung in the corridors of the palace.   
Scorpia knew and understood all of these things, but also knew that she never asked to be a warrior. Why be a warrior when she can be an accomplished artist? None of the other princesses had to deal with rigorous fight training and extensive magic training. At 13, Scorpia could levitate and summon any object. She would soon inherit her grandmother’s book of shadows, passed down through generations. Arachne had failed to show any magical ability, but as Elena always explained, Arachne had almost died at birth due to a life-threatening blood disorder and while she was a fierce fighter, she was seldom on the field for Blacktail’s fear that she would perish. It was Scorpia’s duty to return this particular honor to her family name.   
Horror Hall was the newly-given name to the Scorpioni Palace, by the rest of Etheria. Scorpia’s family had been long shunned by the other kingdoms for their practice of dark magic, their insistence on having a military force, and their outrageous belief that there were other universes with other planets. They were recently vindicated at least in their belief of other worlds by the arrival of Hordak, and his ship full of transients and orphans, including an infant Kyle.   
Who was Hordak? Sometimes Scorpia, who respected her grandfather and trusted him above everything, wondered if he had made a mistake trusting Hordak. This weird bat-like man was cantankerous and reclusive, mostly staying in his laboratory. The people that came with him, who called themselves the Horde, seemed to fear him terribly. And grandpa Blacktail wanted her to join them! The group of orphans, from different worlds, lived so frugally that Scorpia often found herself giving them clothes, toys, and books. Huntara could not recall anything about her planet, but was told by Grizzlor that it was a planet of highly skilled warriors who volunteered her as tribute to fight for the honor of the Horde.   
Then there was evidence that Etheria held long before Hordak in the form of their legend of She-Ra, who came to Etheria in a spaceship, rode a dragon, and defeated an evil emperor, saving Etheria from total annihilation. Legend said she was also the one who took the stars away, with the help of her friends, a league of fighters called Grayskull.   
Walking into the palace, Scorpia met with the shrewd gaze of her grandmother, Lady Rhea. She stood tall and thin, with white hair in an undercut and wearing a black silk dress with a green sheen to it. The mother of Elena, she appeared cold and mirthless, but with Scorpia her usual demeanor broke and she took her granddaughter into a warm hug. “Yaya! I missed you so much! How was your trip to the Kingdom of Snows?” Scorpia looked up, still in Rhea’s embrace. Rhea frowned. “I’m afraid I was not successful in convincing Queen Blizzard to join our cause. I know your grandfather will be disappointed.” Scorpia’s frown matched Rhea’s. Rhea smiled appraisingly at her granddaughter. “I take it you’re not enjoying your training with the Horde and you’re waiting to get lectured by your mothers?” Scorpia made a gagging gesture. Rhea turned, and giving Scorpia a mischievous side-glance, whispered, “let’s go do some magic.” Scorpia happily followed her grandmother to the Divinarium.   
The Divinarium stood at the base of the stinger-shaped spire of the Scorpion Palace. As one passed its doors they were greeted by an ancestral wall. This was a gallery of paintings commemorating ancestors who lived as long ago as a millennia. One entered a circular room once passing to the right or the left of the ancestral wall. In the center of the room was an alter lit by skylight windows above during the day, and a magical illusion of stars and floating candles at night. On the altar was a scrying bowl and Scorpia’s family Book of Shadows, once belonging only to Queen Apex, Blacktail’s wife, who took Lady Rhea as a coven sister before their families united. Only one of royal lineage could read, or even touch the book. At the top of the spire, gleaming red in the cruel savannah sun, stood the Black Garnet, the highest point in the Fright Zone.   
Rhea took Scorpia’s pincers in her own, and recited the incantations of old. Today, Scorpia would learn to scry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally picked a name for Scorpia’s moms, as well as the rest of the family! Some political drama, and we see teen!Scorpia. If you like the magic plot, buckle up! It’s about to get crazy.


End file.
